obsidian
04-10-02, 07:33 PM
Son of Deep Blue challenges chess champion
Mark Tran
Friday October 4, 2002
Five years after the chess computer Deep Blue reduced Garry Kasparov to a gibbering wreck, Vladimir Kramnik, the new world chess champion, today begins a rematch of man v machine.
The match in Bahrain, with $1m prize money at stake, pits Kramnik - nicknamed the Ice Man for his coolness under pressure - against Deep Fritz, an even stronger chess computer than IBM's Deep Blue. Five years ago in New York, Deep Blue toppled Kasparov, as the world's greatest ever chess player grew increasingly agitated as the computer ground him down.
Kasparov paid the price for overconfidence, thinking the match would be a piece of cake as no computer had ever vanquished a human before - he had beaten Deep Blue the previous year. Kramnik has not made that mistake and has prepared extensively for the rematch, hyped as Brains in Bahrain, the chess version of Muhammad Ali's epics, the Rumble in the Jungle and the Thrilla in Manila.
Kramnik, who has been training in Frankfurt, said before today's opening game, the first of eight: "Probably one day computers will be stronger than the best human player, but I still believe we have time, 10 to 15 years, in which to compete with computers. It is definitely going to be very difficult playing an opponent which can calculate something like 2 million moves a second."
Overconfidence was not the sole reason from Kasparov's downfall. Kasparov knew nothing about Deep Blue's playing prowess, whereas in normal games, players can study each other's games so they do not go into a match blind. But that was the situation confronting Kasparov. Worse for the former champion, IBM's team changed the programme after every game so that he was always facing a new opponent.
Kramnik's team has negotiated better terms. Their man was given a copy of the Deep Fritz programme three months before the Bahrain match so he will have some feel for the computer, no changes to the software programme will be allowed once the games start and Kramnik is allowed to rest every six hours.
As for Deep Fritz, programmed by Dutchman Frans Morsch, it fits on a compact disc and runs on a laptop computer, a stark contrast to the 6ft high, 1.4 tonne Deep Blue supercomputer. Deep Fritz can search 2 million moves a second compared to Deep Blue's 200 million a second. But much of Deep Blue's searching was wasted as many of its dozen chips were looking at the same thing, according to Frederic Friedel of the Fritz team, adding that Deep Fritz was "definitely not weaker than Deep Blue."
Kramnik agrees. He has tested Deep Fritz on his laptop, letting it replay the game of Deep Blue against Kasparov in 1997. In almost every position, Kramnick said, Fritz came up with better moves.
"I've looked at those six games and I am completely sure that Deep Fritz is the stronger programme," said Kramnik. "Kasparov made some mistakes in how he played that match, sure, but I won't say yet what they were."
Deep Fritz won the right to play Kramnik by beating the best chess programmes in the world at a tournament in Cadaques, Spain last April. Friedel does not seem so confident as Kramnik, saying his team would be very proud of a drawn match against the world champion.
Related articles
01.08.2001: Stephen Moss takes on Deep Fritz
Useful links
Brains in Bahrain
Vladimir Kramnik
World Chess Federation
Mark Tran
Friday October 4, 2002
Five years after the chess computer Deep Blue reduced Garry Kasparov to a gibbering wreck, Vladimir Kramnik, the new world chess champion, today begins a rematch of man v machine.
The match in Bahrain, with $1m prize money at stake, pits Kramnik - nicknamed the Ice Man for his coolness under pressure - against Deep Fritz, an even stronger chess computer than IBM's Deep Blue. Five years ago in New York, Deep Blue toppled Kasparov, as the world's greatest ever chess player grew increasingly agitated as the computer ground him down.
Kasparov paid the price for overconfidence, thinking the match would be a piece of cake as no computer had ever vanquished a human before - he had beaten Deep Blue the previous year. Kramnik has not made that mistake and has prepared extensively for the rematch, hyped as Brains in Bahrain, the chess version of Muhammad Ali's epics, the Rumble in the Jungle and the Thrilla in Manila.
Kramnik, who has been training in Frankfurt, said before today's opening game, the first of eight: "Probably one day computers will be stronger than the best human player, but I still believe we have time, 10 to 15 years, in which to compete with computers. It is definitely going to be very difficult playing an opponent which can calculate something like 2 million moves a second."
Overconfidence was not the sole reason from Kasparov's downfall. Kasparov knew nothing about Deep Blue's playing prowess, whereas in normal games, players can study each other's games so they do not go into a match blind. But that was the situation confronting Kasparov. Worse for the former champion, IBM's team changed the programme after every game so that he was always facing a new opponent.
Kramnik's team has negotiated better terms. Their man was given a copy of the Deep Fritz programme three months before the Bahrain match so he will have some feel for the computer, no changes to the software programme will be allowed once the games start and Kramnik is allowed to rest every six hours.
As for Deep Fritz, programmed by Dutchman Frans Morsch, it fits on a compact disc and runs on a laptop computer, a stark contrast to the 6ft high, 1.4 tonne Deep Blue supercomputer. Deep Fritz can search 2 million moves a second compared to Deep Blue's 200 million a second. But much of Deep Blue's searching was wasted as many of its dozen chips were looking at the same thing, according to Frederic Friedel of the Fritz team, adding that Deep Fritz was "definitely not weaker than Deep Blue."
Kramnik agrees. He has tested Deep Fritz on his laptop, letting it replay the game of Deep Blue against Kasparov in 1997. In almost every position, Kramnick said, Fritz came up with better moves.
"I've looked at those six games and I am completely sure that Deep Fritz is the stronger programme," said Kramnik. "Kasparov made some mistakes in how he played that match, sure, but I won't say yet what they were."
Deep Fritz won the right to play Kramnik by beating the best chess programmes in the world at a tournament in Cadaques, Spain last April. Friedel does not seem so confident as Kramnik, saying his team would be very proud of a drawn match against the world champion.
Related articles
01.08.2001: Stephen Moss takes on Deep Fritz
Useful links
Brains in Bahrain
Vladimir Kramnik
World Chess Federation